Chapter 675: Hell on earth

It has been snowing heavily in Taiyuan City for more than ten days, and it is not bad. Although many buildings have collapsed, most of the people who can live here have a little wealth. Although many buildings have collapsed, they still have some walls left, and the collapsed wood and stones can finally build a place to live.

So although it is covered with snow, the order in the city is still orderly.

The border army has transferred a battalion of troops, with a total of about a thousand people. In addition, the locally organized wing army, so there will be no shortage of patrol soldiers carrying spears on this broken street.

The soldiers looked a little tired wearing the worn Fan Yang hat. Last night, a group of refugees were about to break into the city under their doors. They were dragged to block people in the middle of the night, and finally blocked tens of thousands of refugees outside the city. Today, they had to patrol the streets again. Such a cold day really made them embarrassed.

The city was peaceful, but outside the city, the walls were filled with frozen and hungry refugees. These people were either from the neighboring county that was most affected or from nearby suburbans. The land collapsed and their wives and children were separated, and they had to find a way out. However, the Taiyuan prefect closed the city gate, but the refugees could not enter and could only build up the suburbs of the city.

The Taiyuan prefect Wang Zhi did this, but his consideration was that there was only so much food in the treasury, and the military and civilians in the city were not enough. If the refugees were allowed to pour in, it would be great? Besides, if the refugees entered the city, if they were hungry and suddenly had an accident, they would not even be able to prevent them. For the sake of caution, they could only aggrieved the refugees outside the city.

Although they would throw some steamed buns every few days and let the refugees rob, everyone knew that the refugees outside the city would not live long. The slowly long winter had arrived, and the refugees who were not covered in clothes would definitely not last long. In addition, they had no food, so they would not starve to death, but they could only freeze to death.

No matter what, this account cannot be counted on Wang Zhi no matter what. If you really want to calculate it, I am afraid that Duke Qi would blame him. Duke Qi was ordered to come to provide disaster relief, but he was slow to buy grain from merchants and had no food. Once the city gate was opened, it would be a huge disaster. Since Wang Zhi could be separated, there was nothing to be afraid of.

At present, Taiyuan Prefecture is full of misery, but the rice shops are doing well at this time. The largest rice shop is Zhengji Warehouse. People outside the city cannot enter, and people in the city always have to eat. Although the government has made some porridge, how can they fill their stomachs? Especially in this cold weather, the weather is cold and there are not a few grains of rice in their stomachs, which is even more difficult to bear. Therefore, although the price of grain has risen to two cents and one dou, there are still a constant stream of buyers. Some illegal troublemakers are actually struggling to grab some people to grab rice. Therefore, in order to maintain the order, the border troops have also allocated several teams and guarded outside the rice shop. Seeing who is looking at the scammers, they will naturally pick it up first.

There were soldiers guarding the mizuku door, and the rules were much more regular in front of the mizuku door. Early in the morning, when the cold wind came in, the door panel of the mizuku was removed and you could see that the dark people lined up in the thick fog. They usually saved money, but the remaining money in the past few years was now like stones on the ground, hoping to exchange for a few buckets of rice and go back.

The crowd was breathing in the cold wind. Most people were blinded, carrying dustpans or bamboo baskets, and fishing in one by one, using silver, big money, money to attract rice, and then quickly walked home.

However, there were complaints, and a strong man was making noise inside: "It's okay for Chen Mi. A few days ago, I only mixed 20% of the rice, but today I have mixed 20% of the sand? Do you buy your sand back with two jin and three hundred jin per bucket?"

When this person called out, many people also became uneasy.

However, a friend from the rice shop came out and said a few words to the soldiers outside. Without saying a word, the soldiers raised the man like a chicken, and they would slapped him a few times and cursed: "Get out quickly, I dare to come and buy rice even if I don't have money!"

In this way, the order is complete again. There are two things in this world that are the most domineering, one is the knife and the other is the rice. Only with rice can people not starve to death, and only with swords can people be intimidated. Just so, there are both swords and rice in this rice shop. If you don’t pay for it, no one can take the rice away.

In Taiyuan, the winter is terrible, the north wind is raging, and the snow is icy and snowy. The people who lined up outside may have little family resources in the past and may have a good life, but now, everyone is the same, and the mountains of gold and silver are just exchanged for a few bites of rice.

A pawn shop was opened next to Zheng Ji's rice shop. The pawn shop was naturally newly opened. Even Chaofeng and his servants invited them temporarily. The painted wooden cabinet had not dried yet, and there was a faint smell. Although it was newly opened, the business was surprisingly good. Those who had no money to buy rice, either took clothes or antiques and calligraphy to drill here.

After all, cash is limited, not everyone has hundreds or thousands of guan in their houses. The rice is surprisingly expensive. After a few days of eating, no matter how rich the family's wealth is, it has to be cleaned. However, men can be hungry for a meal or two, but the elderly and children cannot. So they gritted their teeth and naturally picked up everything they could sell.

Of course, the rules of this pawn shop are different from usual. It is clearly hundreds of slabs of calligraphy and paintings, but Chao Feng stretches out five fingers in the pawn shop. Naturally, the five fingers are not five hundred slabs, but fifty. If you dare to say a word, Chao Feng lowers his head and drinks tea on his own, you will understand the meaning of this. If you like to sell it or not.

At this time, calligraphy and paintings cannot be eaten or saved. I also want to pawn them if I grit my teeth. In the past, I wanted to have a business to come to my house, but now the seller wants to kowtow and beg to sell it at a low price.

Not only calligraphy and paintings, but also selling children and wives, this pawn shop does not refuse. If a yellow-haired girl has five stakes of money, she may double it, and the boy will be cheap. It is already a sky-high price to sell her five stakes.

At this moment, a carriage appeared here slowly in the early morning. There were dozens of guards next to the carriage, and the guards were all strong and very tough. As soon as the carriage arrived, the shopkeeper in the rice shop immediately put out his robe like a pug, bowed his body beside the shaft and whispered: "Master..."

The people inside didn't say anything, and the shopkeeper continued, "It's hard for the master to rush to go down and go to the back hall to make a charcoal and roast it, and eat a bowl of hot soup."

"Um!" The person inside responded slowly.

The shopkeeper immediately lifted the curtain, and Zheng Ke from inside walked out with the help of a few.

Zheng Ke was wearing a fox fur and still felt cold. His hands couldn't help but shrink into his soft thorny sleeves. He glanced at the long dragon outside the shop and said lightly: "Is the business okay?"

The shopkeeper chuckled softly, "It's great. It's early in the morning. Many people dare not wake up because they are afraid of hunger. When they can't stand it at noon, the long dragon has to line up at least three streets. Taiyuan Prefecture has fourteen counties under its jurisdiction, and each county has a rice shop from our Zheng family. It would be amazing to continue selling it like this."

Zheng Ke's face was gloomy and said lightly: "Go in and talk."

They walked into the rice shop rushingly, and didn't even look at the long dragon outside. When they arrived at the back hall of the rice shop, the guy had already burned the charcoal basin and added tea. The shopkeeper was also a clever person, so he immediately asked someone to make a bowl of ginger soup to help Zheng Ke get rid of the cold.

The doors and windows in the hall were closed, so it was a little dim, so I asked someone to add a few oil lamps. Compared with the outside, this place is a fairyland on earth.

Zheng Ke took a sip of hot tea slowly. The shopkeeper had already handed a thick stack of books to the coffee table on Zheng Ke's right hand. Zheng Ke put down the tea, looked through it, raised his eyes and said, "A profit of 1.7 million yuan a month?"

Seeing that Zheng Ke's face was as cold as frosty, the shopkeeper was even more careful and said, "This is only from Taiyuan City. The counties have not been sent yet. After careful calculation, there will always be tens of millions of coins." He licked his lips and thought to himself, with such a huge profit in a month, what business in the world is more profitable than this? The master is not satisfied. Then he thought, if this business can be done for a few more months, tens of millions of coins will definitely be available. Unfortunately, this kind of business cannot last long, otherwise, the Zheng family will not be the richest man in Jiangbei alone.

Zheng Ke said coldly: "Not enough!"

The shopkeeper was a little anxious at this time. The master said this, obviously he was dissatisfied with himself, so he said with a sad face: "In fact, there are more than these profits. The pawn shop next to him must be profitable. There are hundreds of treasures every day, even boys and girls can collect hundreds of them every day. When they are peaceful, they will sell them. The profit may not be as profit as the rice is sold."

Zheng Ke came to his senses at this time and realized that he had just lost his mind. He couldn't help but say, "Sit down and talk."

Seeing Zheng Ke's face relaxed, the shopkeeper carefully sat on the chair with half of his butt, and said, "I originally thought it was the second master who came here, but I didn't expect it to be the master who came here in person. Taiyuan is not peaceful at this time, so the master should be careful when walking around normally."

Zheng Ke said lightly: "I understand. What about the Taiyuan Prefect and the border army? And... Has the Taiyuan Grand Governor's Office been walking around recently?"

The shopkeeper said, "It's all done. Needless to say, the prefect of Taiyuan is the same as the master. As for the Grand Governor's Office, it has given some convenience. Mr. Wen from the Governor's Office has collected 300,000 guan. Although he didn't say anything, he secretly transferred the border troops to garrison the rice shop."

Zheng Ke's eyebrows finally stretched a little, and he said, "Mr. Wen is in Taiyuan with a word of nine tripods and a hundred thousand border troops in Taiyuan. Only he is truly reliable. Let's take a break for a while. You go to the Grand Governor's Office to hand over a name and stab him. Then he said that at noon, I invite Mr. Wen to come to the banquet and ask him to enjoy the scenery. Okay, go and do your business, you don't have to serve you here."

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Chapter completed!